Tile floor covering



Sept., i8, 1956 F. E. MASLAND, JR `763,587

TILE FLOOR COVERING Filed May 7, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet llllllllllllllllllllllllllllll,lmulll.

llllllllllllllllllllllllll III] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIII United StatesPatent TILE FLOOR COVERING Frank E. Masland, Jr., Carlisle, Pa.,assigner to C. H.

Masland & Sons, Carlisle, Pa., a corporation of Penn- SylvaniaApplication May 7, 1953, Serial No. 353,516 1 claim. (on 154-49) havingshapes which are not standard.

A further purpose is to make it easy to replace worn portions in acarpet.

A further purpose is to offer an opportunity to create novelty effectsby the decorator.

A further purpose is to secure tile squares of carpet in side by siderelation by cementing them directly to the oor, or by providing separatecushion backings on the tile squares and cementing such backings to thefloor, or by placing cushion sheets or squares on the oor and cementingthe tile squares to the cushion squares, desirably staggering thejoints.

A further purpose is to employ a cushion backing which has ribs and thusimprove the resilience of the oor covering.

A further purpose is to interlock upwardly directed ribs on cushionbacking sheets with downwardly directed ribs on backing applied to thecarpet tiles, and to cement the ribs in interlocking relation.

A further purpose is to undercut a resilient backing on the tiles behindthe edge of the carpet so that it will` not interfere in close abutmentof the tiles.

A further purpose is to place an integral cushion material havingdownwardly directed ribs on the back of a carpet in order to increasethe wear of the carpet and improve the resilience of the floor covering.

A further purpose is to cement a cushion material having integraldownwardly directed ribs on the back of a carpet tile and to cement thetile on the top of a similar cushion material having downwardly directedribs.

A further purpose is to provide alternate cushions on the backs ofcarpet tiles and to place tiles having special cushions, consisting, forexample of foam rubber, at locations `of abnormal wear.

A further purpose is to cement the edges of the carpetr 4sectionsshowing variations in the oor coverings of the invention.

Figures 6 and 7 are fragmentary top plan views of alternate doorcoverings constructed in accordance with the invention.

2,763,587 Patented Sept. 18, 1956 fice Figures 8 and 9 are fragmentarydiagrammatic vertical sections of further variations in the floorcovering of the invention.

Describing in illustration but not in limitation and referring to thedrawings:

Wide use has been made in the past of tiles for oor coverings. Tileshave been produced of linoleum, rubher, asphalt, and various syntheticplastics. They oifer the advantage of great versatility, since tiles ofone color or design can be interspersed with those of another color ordesign to create pattern effects. They also are reasonably easy to layand permit conforming the tile arrangement to the shape of a room havingany desired contour.

Carpets offer many advantages as floor coverings, since they are soft,attractive, luxurious, and free from tendency to slip. lt has generally,however, not been possible to obtain special carpet designs which arepeculiarly adapted to the needs of a particular room or the ideas of aparticular householder or decorator..

The present invention is designed to impart great ilexibility in thedesigning of floor coverings of carpet by permitting the use of tilescomposed of carpet. Thus tiles of various colors or designs can be usedin any preferred sequence, establishing an effective way of designingfor the needs of the particular installation or according to the ideasof the particular designer.

The laying of the tiles is greatly facilitated in the invention, sincethey can either be cemented directly to the floor, or can be cemented toa cushion backing which is either an over-all backing or a series ofsquares similar to tile, and can be interlocked with the cushion backingas well as cemented to it. The tiles thus may consist entirely of carpetcut into squares and desirably coated on the edges to preventunravelling, or the tiles may consist of carpet carrying with it abacking, suitably of cushion material.

The carpet edges on the tile can be brought very close together if thecushion backing which forms part of the tile is slightly undercut.

The joints in the carpet tiles will desirably be diterently placed fromthe joints in the backing which is directly against the floor, so thatno tendency of the carpet to hump or show unevenness at the joints ofthe underlay will exist.

The cushion material on the back of the carpet tile and the undercushionare desirably made of integral solid ribbed construction comprising forexample paper felt, and the ribs will desirably be downwardly directedboth on the back of the carpet tile and on the undercushion, although insome cases the ribs will to advantage be interlocked.

It is desirable to seal the weave at the edges to prevent anypossibility of fraying or unravelling.

In some instances it is preferable to employ in areas of unusual trac aspecial cushion on the back of the carpet, consisting fo-r example offoam rubber. Alternate tiles are desirably made having the foam rubbercushion on the black of the carpet, the foam rubber being of the samethickness as the paper felt or the like used on other tiles so thattiles in one area can be backed, for example, by paper felt, and thosein another area by foam rubber.

Considering first the form of Figure l, it is noted that a cushionbacking 20 has been provided directly against the oor. This will, ifdesired, be cemented to the oor, although in most cases cementing ofthis cushion backing 20 to the floor is unnecessary.

Tiles 21 extend over the backing in abutting relationship, forminglongitudinal joints 22 and lateral joints 23. There will desirably be arecurring pattern in the floor covering, tiles A, B and C suitably beingalike in color or surface design or contouring of the pile (high and lowin the same transverse row), and other features similarly conforming tothe pattern.

Each of the carpet tiles as shown is a square suitably 9 x 9 inches, butpermissibly as large as l2 X 12 inches. Tiles larger than 12 X 124inches are not preferred. Each of the carpet squares comprises pile 24and the usual woven backing 25 which is formed on the back of the carpetin weaving.

The carpet is suitably woven in .a large piece, and precautions aredesirably taken to prevent unravelling at the edge. The back is`preferably coated with a layer of latex or rubber which penetrates andcements the warps and wefts .together .in the backing 25.

The tile may be secured in place in various ways. Figure 2 shows thetile 2l directly cemented at 26 to the oor 27. This is permissiblebecause the cushioning eiect of the carpet tends to create a soft :feeleven though no cushion backing is employed.

In the preferred embodiment, however, a cushion backing under the carpetis used, as it tends to eliminate the elects of discontinuities in thefloor and adds to the wearing qualities of the carpet and the softnessof the feel.

In Figure 3 each individual carpet square has a cushion backing sheet 2dcemented Ythereon by adhesive 3l) between the cushion sheet 23 and thewoven backing of the square, The cushion on the square is undercut at 31around all edges to reduce the "likelihood that the Cushion backingcould protrude and interfere with close lateral fitting of the squaresof carpet to carpet.

Any suitable adhesive may be used at 30 to unite the woven backing ofthe carpet to 'the cushion lbacking '28 on the square, rubber, syntheticrubber, casein, polyvinyl chloride and animal glue being permissible.

The cushion backing 23 may if desired be a sponge paper vfelt as usedunder linoleum, roofing felt, jute felt,

or wool felt.

ln'the form of Figure 3 the cushion backing 28 is united directly to theoor 27 yby `adhesive 26 which may be linoleum or asphalt 'tile settingadhesive.

In ysome cases it is :preferred to obtain greater resilience .fr

in the cushion backing and in Figure 4 I show a lcushion 'backing 2S ofresilient paper 'feit having `integral spaced `parallel downwardlydirected ribs 32 distributed over the bottom surface and cemented by-the Vadhesive 2-6 to the floor. There 'are here-substantial air pocketsadjoining the door which tend to give great resilience.

lt -is vdesirable -in 'some cases -toobtain even greater yresilience,and this is best done bycementingto the back of the carpet a cushionmaterial such as paper felt at '28', 'having integral solid ribs 32downwardly directed, and to place Aan kunder-cushion 33 desirably of thesame ymaterial having ,the ribs :downwardly directed as shown 4in Figure'5. The surfaces of the cushion material opposite to the .ribs aredesirably plane sur-faces. vThe 'backing cushions 23 on the back of thecarpet tiles are desirably cemented to the top of the undercushion at34. It has been found `that in Imost cases it is advantageous simply torest the undercushion on the `floor, 4and that lit is not necessary vtocement the `undercushion :to the floor.

While the undercushion 331may1be a continuous vsheet as shown at 33inthe top plan view of Figure `"7, it preferably consists of a plurality.of squares 332 Aas indicated in Figure 6, the squares 332 desirablyfbe'ing of a-/difrferent tsizesthan ,the carpet tiles, and suitablyconsiderably'larger, .so that lthe joints on the undercushion will bestaggered with respect to those on kthe carpet tiles. Thus it will Aheeasy to cut the squares on the under-cushion :to fodd shapes, but noditiiculty will be encountered because of @abutting joints 3S :in .theundercushion, which `-will not cause -humps on the face.

The ribs on the undercushion Iand the carpet ytile Acan be interlockedif desired, as shown in Figure `8 where the integral lpaper felt 28having downwardly directed ribs at 32 is mounted on a sheet of integralpaper felt 33 having upwardly directed ribs. The ribs of the downwardllydirected sheet and the upwardly directed sheet will suitably interlockand the sheets are cemented together at 34.

ln some cases it is preferable to employ special carpet tiles having afoam rubber backing 35 cemented to the back of the .carpet in areas ofspecial wear, the foam rubber backing being cemented at 34 to theundercushion The foam .rubber is kdesirably of the same thickness as theribbed paper felt backing 28' so `that the diierent carpet tiles may beused interchangeably.

If there is any danger of unravelling, this is desirably prevented bycoating the cut edges of the woven carpet at 36, with any lsuitableadhesive such as rubber, synthetic rubber, or ethyl cellulose.

Any suitable adhesive may be employed to unite the carpet tile to thecushion backing below, among which are linoleum cement, asphalt tilecement, rubber cement, polyvinyl chloride adhesives, casein adhesivesand .animal glue.

It will be evident that the invention can be used very effectively to.create .attractive designs according to the taste of the user, .andYalso to permit rapid replacement of damaged sections. For example ifink or the like is spilled on an ordinary carpet, the damage iS .oftenirreparable, but in the case of the present invention a square or a fewsquares can be .taken up and `others 4cemented .down in their place.

In view of `my ,invention and disclosure variations and mod'ications tomeet individual whim -or particular need will doubtless 'become evi-dentto others skilled in the art, `to obtain all or part of the benefits ofmy invention without copying the product and method shown, and Ithereforeclaim all such insofar as ythey fall within the reasonablespirit and ,scope of vmy claim.

Having thus described my invention, Ywhat I claim as new and desire tosecure by 'Letters vPatent is:

A floor covering having an upper surface consisting .of carpet,comprising Aa yplurality of carpet tile squares of uniform size not inexcess of '12 X 12 inches arranged side by side in rows, having apattern extending over the door .covering consisting of 4a series ofpattern repeats connected together, each of the pattern repeatsconsisting of squares of d'iierent pattern appearance having patternunits 'in successive positions in the repeat and all of the repeatshaving'squares of the same appearance Vin the same relative position invthe repeat, in cornbination with a sheet o'f lpaper felt forming abacking united to the back of each carpet tile and having integral solidYribs directed away from the carpet, and an undercushion of paper felthaving -integral solid ribs directed Yaway from 'the carpet, the paper'felt backing on 'the carpet tiles being cemented to the undercushionand the undercushion being below the tiles and the paper felt backing.

References Cited in the file of Vthis patent UNITED 'STATES PATENTS:1,158,051 Hopkinson Oct. 26, '1915 1,594,261 Herschmann July 27, 192641,947,152 .Clark c, Feb. 13 1934 2,012,929 Knowland Aug. .27, 19,352,055,464 Y Bowes Sept. 29 1936 2,065,450 .Gordon Dec. 22 193.6Y2,480,004 Dil-dilian Aug. 23 1949 2,529,799 .Crockett Nov. 14, -19502,595,111 Steward Apr. 29, 195,2 2,659,687 Moore Nov. 1.7 v1953l2,715,289 VGale Aug. 16 .1955

